Birthday Present
by Invader-Hime
Summary: ONE SHOT Fourteen year old Gwen awakens to find an old enemy has made a strange request. One Sided GWEVIN.


Birthday Present

By Chibi Hime

AN:Dedicated to Karashi..it is her birthday! Happy Birthday! Ben 10 (c) CNS/MOA

Gwen's head throbbed.

She'd been knocked unconscious, but she could not remember how. She hoped she didn't have brain damage. No. If she had enough mind to worry about brain damage, she probably did not have to worry about it. Slowly, she eased her emerald eyes open and absorbed her surroundings.

She wasn't anywhere she had ever seen before. It was a barn of some kind. It was an updated one. While its structure was definitely one from over a century ago, Gwen could make out steel reinforcements and electric wiring. It was comfortably warm inside, despite the autumn chill she knew had to be in the air outside. Yellow artificial light illuminated the room. Straw covered the cement floor. Looking around, she saw that someone had been living here. There was a large pile of mismatched pillows an blankets in a corner a short distance from her. Next to the pile, a small television, plugged in with an extension cord sat beside an old icebox. There is a table and a few mismatching chairs. It looks like someone made it into a ramshackle home using random junk they found. Sitting up, Gwen found herself on a smaller, pinker, set of blankets. What was going on here?

She stood up and stars danced before her eyes. Taking a moment to steady herself, the fourteen year old staggered to an old wicker chair next to the table. She sits down and rubs her temples, what could have made her head hurt so bad?

Gwen eased her eyes open again and to her surprise, there is a cake on the table. The icing is smudged, but she can tell it is a birthday cake. The message is still there, but the name has been rubbed out. A small packaged of candles sat nearby. Her stomach grumbled loudly. Gwen sighed. It wasn't hers to eat.

There is a sound...something rustling...something massive moving around, coming closer. Her heart stops in her chest and she remembers! She remembers being seized in a giant crystal hand. She remembers Ben using EyeGuy to blast her free, but he only blasted her into a wall. She had heard an inhuman shriek of rage and pain, then felt soft, furred hands on her face, but then all had been dark.

Now, Gwen realized, she was in trouble. She had been kidnapped and none of her low level spells could hold a candle to what it was that had kidnapped her. Quickly, she made her way back to her blanket pile and pretended to be unconscious. She heard him come...Kevin 11...that...that thing. She heard his labored breathing and his heavy footsteps. She felt him get closer to her. Carefully, she opened her eyelids a crack and looked through her lashes at him.

Ugh...he was so ugly. She realized how terrible that sounded, but it was true. It was as if his condition had gotten worse over the few years between their encounters. He was more spiky, more quilled and his teeth had grown so large, they actually pulled his lips back and stuck out...which caused him to drool green slime. She saw the gills in his face flare and for the first time, she realized that was how he breathed. It looked painful to just be that...that thing. Suddenly, she felt very differently. He was so pathetic. It was him living in this barn...scavenging to survive. He was about her age really, wasn't he? A little older? Like Ken? Gwen shuddered as she thought of how horrible it would be if Ken was somehow forced to live like this. Her captor noticed her movement and brushed her hair behind her ear with a furred hand...he felt like he was being so gentle...but that went against everything he was. He was a violent, sociopathic...Gwen suddenly found she was unable to use the word "monster". It hurt too much. Now that she saw him up close...what the mutation had done to him...the fact that he had somehow managed to continue to live any form of civilized life was amazing to her.

Nevertheless, when she felt his face close to hers, her eyes shot open. She found herself staring into three mismatched alien eyes. Gwen saw him tense, as if he fully expected her to scream. Instead, Gwen just stared back at him. The two did so for almost an entire minute. She took in everything that he was...that was wrong with him. Kevin's uneven gaze blinked. Then, he flinched.

"What? What is it? What do you want?" he asked her, his metallic voice rumbling in his chest. Gwen couldn't help but notice it was deeper than before. Despite how hard his distorted features were to read, Gwen could see he was uncomfortable under her scrutiny.

"I should ask you the same thing," Gwen said flatly.

She knew insulting the hulking young man would get her nowhere, so she might as well keep her cool as long as possible.

Kevin shifted his massive bulk and his tail thrashed. Something about her question apparently made him uneasy. Kevin leaned away from her and his gills huffed loudly. He crossed his misshapen arms and sat still.

"Why did you take me? What do you want with me?" Gwen asked, just as carefully as before.

"Be quiet," he growled.

Gwen noticed it wasn't nearly as harsh as anything he usually said. She also noticed how his oversized teeth caused him to slur his words slightly.

"Kevin?" she tried to sound a little more stern with this inquiry.

Kevin stiffened. It had been so long since anyone had said his name out loud. He had almost forgotten what it sounded like...especially when someone wasn't screaming or sobbing it. The girl sat up.

"Why did you take me, Kevin? More Ben vengeance?" she asked.

"No!" he snarled, baring his teeth.

Gwen is not afraid of him. If he wanted to hurt her, he would have done it already. If she was really his hostage, he could have tied her up or put her in a cage...or something! He wouldn't be sitting there nervously fidgeting. He was, oddly enough, not looking for trouble.

"What then?" she asked, a little exasperated.

The mutant stopped and started several times before becoming frustrated and turning his back on her. He mumbled something.

"What?" she questioned, softer this time.

"It is my birthday,"

It was all he said.

Gwen pondered his words. There is only one, borderline absurd answer she can come up with.

"So...to not be alone on your birthday...you kidnapped me? You caused thousands of dollars of property damage to do that?"

He laughed, which sounded like a snort mixed with a growl.

"Would you have come otherwise?"

Gwen had to shake her head.

"No," she said.

He smiled, it was crooked and ugly, but it was a smile.

"Why me?" she asked.

He looks uncomfortable again.

"You are the only one who isn't afraid," he said.

Gwen could hear his voice straining for control...to sound even and not strained. She remembers their few encounters. She never cowered before him...always rose to meet him, challenged him...stood up to him. Now he had sought her out. It was sad, but touching in its own way.

"So, what do you want me to do?" she asked genuinely.

He didn't answer her, only cast his mismatched gaze in the direction of the table with the cake on it. Gwen understood.

"You want me to have cake with you?" Gwen questioned disbelievingly.

The mutant nodded almost ashamedly.

"Then what?" she asked, slightly suspicious of the pink pile of blankets that had been gathered specifically for her.

"You can go if you want. You can also...come back if you want," he answered.

He wasn't lying, she could tell. That was all he actually wanted. She supposed she could do that. He was lonely. This colossal collage of inhumanity was lonely.

"Alright. I'll celebrate your birthday with you," she agreed. She made no promise of returning.

He looked suspicious all of a sudden. To prove her point, Gwen went over to the small table and sat down. She picked up the small box of candles and stuck each of them into the cake. She waved towards him.

"I need your hand to light these,"

He eased over, taking care not to be clumsy. He waved his hand close to the wicks and the tiny candles lit up,

"Now make a wish," Gwen suggested.

Kevin looked as though he did not have to think about what it was he wanted to wish for. He quickly blew a slight gust of air from his gills that brushed them out.

_I wish she would come back._

Gwen, not knowing what he wished for, decided to wish for something for him...in case his unspoken desire was something less than noble.

_I wish Kevin has a better life than this by his next birthday._

Unbeknownst to either of them, both their wishes would come true.


End file.
